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Analysis

In the wake of the Paris attacks the eyes of the world turn to ISIS – a group who publicly execute men for being gay. But just how much of a threat are they to the LGBT community in the UK?

We may never know the name of the 14-year-old boy seized by ISIS and locked away for more than a year for being gay, but the image of his crumpled body at the bottom of a 100ft tower should never be forgotten. Nor should the unknown number of LGB people stoned to death in Iraq and Syria because of who they loved. Nor the pregnant woman clinging from a balcony outside a Paris theatre to escape the gunshots inside.

Yet any lessons from these senseless attacks will be lost if we ignore the difference between a small number of extremists and the world’s fastest growing religion; if we don’t ask the question: is Islam itself really a threat to the gay community?

The answer is simple. “No,” says Oliver Scharbrodt, professor of Islamic studies at the University of Chester, “the Qur’an is no more homophobic than the Bible. In fact, unlike Christianity, Islam teaches that sexual drives are natural and something that isn’t inherently sinful.”